1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a kit for contact lens cleaning, as well as to a method for contact lens cleaning. The present invention is applied to cleaning of known contact lenses composed mainly of, for example, methyl methacrylate, silicone-containing methacrylate, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, butyl acrylate or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods for cleaning contact lenses to remove stains adhering thereto are already known and various compositions have been proposed for this purpose.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 42614/1982 discloses a method wherein a contact lens is immersed in an aqueous solution containing, for example, a hypochlorite, a chlorinated lime and chloramine to clean the lens. This method has a sufficient cleaning effect but pays no attention for making the cleaned lens safe by, for example, applying to the cleaned lens a treatment for making it nontoxic. Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 119113/1981 discloses a method wherein a contact lens is immersed in an aqueous solution containing a hypohalogenite for a necessary length of time to remove stains adhering to the lens. In this method, a reducing agent is dissolved in the cleaning solution, after the immersion treatment for a necessary length of time, to make the solution nontoxic and, when the reducing agent is a saccharide such as glucose, mannose or the like, it can be dissolved in the cleaning solution prior to the immersion. These methods, however, are defective in that the treatment for making the solution nontoxic may be forgotten and the visual check of the completion timing of such a treatment is difficult.
Thus, the conventional methods for removing stains from contact lenses have a sufficient stainremoving effect but have drawbacks, for example, in that the safety of cleaned lens is low, that the cleaning operation becomes lengthy because two cleaning components are added separately, that the addition of one cleaning component is forgotten resulting in the reduced safety of cleaned lens, and that the safety of cleaned lens can not be ascertained.